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Category Archives: Digital darkroom

The Braun FS-120 is a very excellent film scanner for 35mm films and medium format films. It stands out by a very good image quality and a very high scanning speed. With an effective resolution of 3270 dpi it is the first scanner, since we have been testing film scanners, which achieves the nominal resolution (3200 dpi) in practice by 100% and even exceeds that. In our film scanner shop the Braun FS-120 and additional Braun film holders are available from stock.

The Braun FS-120 beats its direct competitors Reflecta MF-5000 and Plustek OpticFilm 120 because of its very fast scanning speed. In terms of image quality the 3 scanners lie at a similar level, then Braun FS-120, however, is a bit ahead. Anyway, the Braun FS-120 cannot keep up with the professional medium format scanners from Nikon or Hasselblad; these high-value scanners play in a different category. Also in a different (much lower) category there are the flat scanners with transparency unit from Epson, Canon or Microtek. The Braun FS-120 beats these flatbed scanners in all areas.

Due to the very good image quality, the extremely high scanning speed, the well working automatic dust and scratch correction function and the achievement of the nominal resolution by 100% in practice we can declare the Braun FS-120 as the top recommendation for a medium format scanner in the middle price area at the moment.

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Film scanner test-reports: complete overview of all the models

Whoever chooses to switch from the classic darkroom for whatever reasons to a digital one, he or she needs to be somewhat acquainted with the what-how-why-which-where details of scannign film negatives. One needs not to have a thorough knowledge, but even so, a review made a specialist can always come handy.

This link provides an overview of all film scanners testing, sorted according to the producer. There are also older test reports of those scanners that disappeared from the market long ago. Finally, there are a lot of film scanner buyers who want to purchase a used device. Also, on offer are some Accessoires and adapters for many older devices.

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This is what I use for scanning my 8×11 negatives. It’s not the best machine on the market; heck, it’s not even half the best ones.But it does its job quite nicely so it’ll remain my main film scanner until such time I will invest in a more powerful and fancier one.

Small picture film scanner

Optical resolution: 7.200 dpi (according to manufacturer)

Color depth: 48 bit

incl. film holders for slides and 35mm filmstrips

I have modified the 35 film holder to accept 8×11 negatives ( black tape and black cardboard did wonders). I always keep the holder in a dust-free zipped bag.

The OpticFilm 7200 is capable of scanning 35mm slides and negatives in an optical resolution of 7200 dpi. This in combination with the very fast scanning and the USB 2.0 high-speed connection enables the low priced OpticFilm 7200 to compete with various professional film scanners.

The OpticFilm 7200 is suitable for photographers and home users. The images, which are digitized true to the original, can be used for press, home and office purposes.

The OpticFilm 7200 will be delivered with SilverFast SE.

Obviously, you’ll need a custom – made film tray for scanning 8×11 format, since this scanner doesn’t come with one of such format.

One can modify the existing slide tray into a 8×11 film tray (the same method can be employed to make a 16mm or 110 mask, or for 17.5 format).

What you have to do is break the margins of the slide tray. You need to do this because where the margins are, your film will have to enter and exit the mask you’ll make. Friction with the margins will more than probable scratch your film.

Step 1 – break the margins of the slide tray

Step 2 – build the mask

Take a large piece of black cardboard, thickness of or up to 1 mm.

Cut two snug fitting strips for the length and width of the tray; make sure they are snug with the lateral margins of the tray, and with the length as well.

Held them together with a small vice or clips, and measure the scanning area (make sure you have exactly 8×11 measurements). You can easily measure to cut the scan frame by means of sticking the corners of the frame with a needle, and unite the holes with pencil lines to draw a rectangle on each strip of cardboard. Make sure your pieces are properly aligned, so the cutouts are matching.

Make two very narrow strips of same length and thickness as the cardboard pieces; what you do actually is the “negative bed”, running for the length of the cardboard pieces. Is basically a sandwich:

This is a transversal section:

the narrow strips, running for the length of the cardboard piece

film bed, where the negative strip will run

the cardboard pieces (the sandwich)

Glue the two narrow strips at the exact distance from one another, and align them with the margins of the cutout window of the scan area. These narrow strips will also deny any friction between film and cardboard, when you’ll run the film inside the cardboard mask.

area where you broke off the slide tray margins; you can see now why you did it. The film would’ve been in direct contact with the plastic.